Dark days for Napster

Sneaking out the fact that worldwide the service has passed half a million subscribers doesn’t really brighten the stark black and white of the financial picture: losses have grown for Napster to $16.7 million compared to $14.9 million a year ago. The company insists that it has money to see it through to 2008 – even if Google doesn’t buy it (my inference). It’s not all bad news though, both revenues and subscribers are way up and the company is planning a free web service paid for by ads. Frankly though, I can’t see them making it through the year with consolidation the key word for the digital music services market this year.

I hope I’m wrong, it’s a good product and they’re getting their marketing act together but it’s an impressive burn rate while they’re not catching Real let alone Apple’s iTunes.